Besigye to First Son Muhoozi Kainerugaba: Don’t forget you were refugees in Sweden

Veteran opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye has reminded first son Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba that many members of his father Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s family used to be refugees in Sweden.

Besigye, Museveni’s former bush war physician and fiercest critic for two decades, has been engaged in a war of words with Lt Gen Kainerugaba, the presidential advisor on special operations.

The first son was angry with the opposition leader for talking about delays and procurement irregularities for the supply of Covid19 oxygen plants for Mulago National Referral Hospital and Entebbe Grade B Hospital.

The deal involved Silverbacks Pharmacy Limited, owned by Kainerugaba’s wife Charlotte Nankunda, and her sister Ishta Asiimwe Muganga – both women being daughters of foreign affairs minister Sam Kutesa.

In his criticism of what he called the First Family Bonanza “by Uganda’s NRM/M7 Junta “royals,” Besigye described the scandal as “brazen as it’s repugnant.”

Kainerugaba then castigated Besigye for dragging his wife Charlotte into the Covid19 bonanza.

He reminded Besigye that he too could be mistaken for having been a royal since he even visited the Museveni home in Sweden in 1985, an hour before the bush warlord captured power.

“Colonel Besigye, were you a ‘Royal’ when you came with Mzee Museveni in 1985 to our home in Sweden?” the first son asked.

In response, Besigye has now told Kainerugaba that the Museveni members were in Sweden as refugees, and that he was a freedom fighter – not a royal.

Then, Besigye continued, the Apollo Milton Obote administration had labelled the National Resistance Army (NRA) rebels as bandits.

“When I came with Mr Museveni to your home, we referred to ourselves as freedom fighters, while Uganda government called us bandits,” Besigye responded to Kainerugaba.

“Then, you and family were refugees in Sweden.”